WE have seen the 21st century of shopping – and it’s in Brooklyn.
Bay Ridge, to be precise – where downtown’s designer discounter Century 21 decamped after Sept. 11.
Here it sits on 86th Street, part of a several-blocks-long stretch that looks like an open-air mall from New Jersey.
There’s the Wiz, a Gap, a Radio Shack and a KayBee’s; Lane Bryant, a Children’s Place and a Nine West Outlet. Tucked between them are sundry salons and several stores you’ll find nowhere else.
Together they make for a great day’s shopping – a place where you can get designer dresses, a haircut, a schnauzer, a charlotte russe and a tan, all within view of the Verrazano Bridge.
Then again, many shoppers will ride the R train for 50 minutes just for Century 21. They may or may not be disappointed.
While the downtown store was hardly a palace, the new digs are decidedly more industrial looking – the aisles more cramped and the floor, in some areas, bare concrete. The other day, the air smelled of hair spray and rang with the sound of shoppers’ rapid-fire Russian banter.
But the designer goodies were there, waiting to be discovered. Past the white velour jumpsuits and blue-tinted, animal-print, polyester Versace jackets – highway robbery even for half price- were Ralph Lauren’s cashmere sweaters ($99.97), Jones New York suits ($139.97) and elegant jackets by Jil Sander ($249.97).
Elsewhere were Tignanello bags in buttery leather, DKNY earrings (a steal for under $5), Nautica jackets for boys, men’s cashmere-lined gloves and a slew of glorious ties.
Walk through the back, and you enter Century 21’s Home Store, a hectic place of linens, cut crystal, housewares, chocolates and tchotchkes. There was a forest of umbrella stands, lots of American flags and box upon box of Christmas cards, most of which featured poinsettias.
The lines were haphazard, the intercoms loud and you’ll probably need several aspirin to regain your equilibrium.
Things were calmer down the block at Benetton – a small, meticulously organized store filled with jewel-colored wool sweaters for men, women and children, most of them discounted by 20 or 30 percent. (Asked how long the sale would last, a clerk shrugged and said, “As long as the owner wants it to.”)
Across the street, Lisa’s Craft & Gift Shop smelled faintly of potpourri and dried eucalyptus. There were a rainbow of ribbons, acres of fabric and baskets of every size, and a daunting display of dolls, one of which doubled as a lamp.
Up front, in a glass case, were the kind of miniature fancy shoes selling for $15 a pop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift store; here they’re $3.99 and up. Smaller shoes – beribboned and intended as tree ornaments – are $1.99.
Nearby, at the World of Pets, a schnauzer and some Doberman pups gamboled in the window. There were more puppies and cats inside, along with all kinds of pet paraphernalia, and one of the biggest bird cages glimpsed outside of the Central Park’s zoo – wider than a phone booth and just a tad shorter.
It’s $599 and can accommodate several macaws. From the sounds of things in the back, the resident birds were hungry.
So were we. We passed up Nothing Fits! – with its Steve Madden shoes and red vinyl over-the-knee boots – and found plenty of choices: an all-you-can-eat sushi place, and Vietnamese, Indian and Chinese noodle restaurants among them.
Then we saw the charlotte russe, its whipped-cream topping rising above its cardboard collar, at Your Baker bakery.
Toto, I don’t think we’re in Paramus anymore.
***
To get to Bay Ridge, take the downtown R train to 86th Street. It’s the second to last stop, about 50 minutes from Midtown.